Proficiency beverages permit an individual to over-come the problems of rehydration after prolonged strenuous exertion.
Prinkkilla et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,237 discloses a beverage containing a polyglucose component. Stray-Gunderson U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,723 discloses a wide range of compositions for a proficiency beverage. Kawashima et al Japanese 402901066! Discloses a performance beverage containing polyglucose components. Since about 1911, it has been known that the osmotic pressure of solutions of carbohydrates increased as the molecular weight of the carbohydrate increased.
The marketing of the proficiency beverage of the present invention in the UK has involved sufficient commercial success to stimulate the interest of other business persons seeking to participate in its marketing. In UK the competitive marketers of proficiency beverages have been aware of the uniqueness and superiority of the proficiency beverage of the present invention, but have been unable to “reverse-engineer” this proficiency beverage. Such inability to reverse engineer is attributable to both the unobviousness of the composition and the unobviousness of the method of preparing such beverage. Rarely is there evidence of market place unobviousness, but when there is evidence of market place unobviousness, such evidence merits weighting with other factors pertinent to unobviousness.
The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book at page 397 explains that: “Make sure you drink water before and after exercise in warm humid weather. If you exercise for a period in excess of 30 minutes, stop and drink water every 15 to 20 minutes during the exercise.” Such water helps to cope with the dehydration problems, but does not alleviate the problems of replacing blood sugar and/or salts dealt with by some varieties of sports beverages. When a beverage enters the stomach, there has generally been an “incubation period” so that the body could readjust the composition of the liquid so that it could advance into the intestine, where the absorption of components could occur. In the stomach, some high sugar sports beverages have absorbed liquid from the body in order to be suitable for transmittal to the small intestine. In diluting the sports beverage, the beverage is dehydrating a portion of the body in order to advance the sports beverage into the small intestine for its rehydration function. Such dehydration-rehydration phenomena delay the overall rehydration objective.
How rapidly either the solvent or solute diffuses through a semi-permeable membrane is dependent upon a variety of factors. Because glucose is the component in the blood which is needed for energizing further strenuous activity, many sports beverages have heretofore had; relatively high concentrations of glucose and/or lower polysaccharides. In the development of the present invention, it was discovered that the speed with which a body adequately re-hydrates and recovers from the dehydration effects of strenuous activity is delayed by such relatively high content of lower saccharides of the sports beverage.
Terms such as “isotonic” and “hypotonic” and “hypertonic” have sometimes been used in connection with the concentration of salts in a liquid, compared to the salt concentration of ocean water or tears or biological fluids. However, these terms are also applicable to the concentration factors affecting absorption through the wall of the small intestine. One feature of the present invention is the use of a proficiency beverage designed to be hypotonic both in the stomach and in the small intestine for the purpose of expediting the re-hydration of the individual after prolonged strenuous exercise. This has much to do with maximizing performance after using the beverage, but is less relevant to the thirst-quenching characteristics of a beverage. In order to be marketable, however, the sports beverage must also have a flavor which is sufficiently popular and sufficient thirst-quenching qualities to be utilized. Although the giants in the sports beverage industry have made large profits, the hurdles have been so insurmountable that relatively few new brands of sports beverages have gained any significant share of the competitive market. Market perspectives provided trivial hope that any newcomer might achieve a worthwhile innovation.
The sports beverage proposed by Winer et al: U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,909 aspires for prompt replacement of all of the slats lost in sweat during the hours of strenuous activity. The Winer et al patent criticizes prior art sports beverages because of their high sugar content. The Winer et al sports beverage contains no carbohydrates. Sugar-rich sports beverages continue to dominate the market.
Winer et al explains that the osmotic pressure phenomena influence how long a sports beverage remains in the stomach. Winer et al recommends and claims an osmomolality within a range from 50 to 80 m.osm/liter in order to shorten the residence time in the stomach. Osmomolality is defined as the number of particles per liter.